"Your turn?" Pa repeats. "Are you planning something, little one?"
"A girl can be prepared," Mirelle says sweetly.
Brynna snorts, and the conversation moves on.
I put a piece of venison in my mouth and chew until it has the texture of boot leather.
The knock comes an hour later, after the plates have been cleared and Pa has opened the good mead. Ysolde is forcing everyone to admire fabric swatches while I sit in my chair and consider the sentence Ma has handed down.
Three sisters. Every fitting.
Four, if Mirelle gets her way.
How did one dress turn into an entire season of this?
Harek, our doorwarden, leans into the hall. He has an expression I don't recognize, which is unusual. Harek has two faces. Bored because no one is dying, or eager because someone might.
This is neither.
"Visitors, my lord. Human." He pauses. "The Voss sons."
Mirelle lets out a small shriek.
I'm on my feet before I know I've moved.
So is she.
That tells me everything I have spent months hoping isn’t true.
"Show them in," Pa says.
Then he gives me a look, so I sit down.
I hate every second of it.
The two humans enter together. Even without an introduction, I would know exactly who they are.
The one in front is polished like expensive furniture. Dark hair slicked back. Smile already in place. His eyes add up everything they touch. The tapestries. The silver. My sisters.
He bows exactly as low as manners require and not a hair farther.
"Lord Oakenshade. My lady." He inclines his head to Ma. "Princeton Voss, at your service. Forgive the hour. My brother insisted, and since Caden rarely insists on anything, I've learned to indulge him."
Behind him stands the younger Voss son.
Caden is not what I expected. I imagined a younger copy of his father. Sleepy eyes. Careful voice. A man who takes his time deciding how much you're worth.
Instead, Caden has wind-tossed brown hair and keeps looking at the shields on our walls, the fire, the doors. Anywhere but us.
He's afraid.
He came anyway.
What am I supposed to do with that?
I want very badly to hate him. I sit there and work at it.
But I know duty when I see it. And Caden is bound by something that looks a great deal like duty.
